Celebrating the 40-year Partnership

To celebrate 40 years of the establishment of diplomatic ties with China, Cape Verde’s government arranged a series of activities. Diplomat of Cape Verde, Tolentino, visited the Confucius Institute of Cape Verde on March 22. He has acquired insight into the development of the institute since it was founded in December 2015, and he also invited teachers and students to join the celebration.

On April 20, under the arrangement of diplomatic organization of Cape Verde, teachers from the Confucius Institute delivered a class in St Vincent Branch School. Two young teachers — XIN Xin and XIONG Wanping — firstly taught students how to greet each other and introduce themselves in Chinese. Students then repeatedly practised Chinese words such as “hello”, “China” and “Cape Verde”, and they also learned some simple sentences like “I’m from Cape Verde” and “You’re my friend”. During the class, teachers guided students to interact with each other, shaking hands and greeting, which fostered an enthusiastic atmosphere. After that, teacher ZHANG Chi introduced numbers one to seven in Chinese. Students easily remembered them in a short time because of his unique teaching style. At last, a song named Find Friends brought the class to a climax. Hand in hand, everyone sang the song which contained words and phrases learned before: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, where are my friends? Here they are. My friends are here!

That afternoon, teachers from the Confucius Institute organized an interesting game on the Nova Plaza in the capital of St Vincent. The game had four components: digging a ping pong ball, kicking the shuttlecocks, holding the cap with chopsticks and learning Find Friends. Participants were awarded with a special present if they managed to finish all four challenges. This fascinating game attracted many participants, including tourists, citizens and pupils. The activity lasted from 3:30 pm to around 6 pm, with cheers and laughter resonating in the square. The Ambassador of Cape Verde specially flew from Praia to attend this event. He praised the Confucius Institute for making a profound contribution to the linguistic and cultural communication, and encouraged it to hold more activities like this.

On April 22, the first table tennis competition of Cape Verde University was held at the Confucius Institute. The majority of competitors were students from the Confucius Institute, students and teachers from Cape Verde University and foreign teachers in Cape Verde. The competition was divided into men’s singles and women’s singles, with 20 men and 18 women taking part. Finally, the foreign teachers took the crown. Master ZHENG Qingjun gave the award to them and encouraged students and teachers to play table tennis more often and try to touch Chinese culture.

At the Cape Verde Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of China in Cape Verde and Cape Verde Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the celebration for the 40th anniversary of establishing ties between two countries on April 25. All Chinese teachers and some Cape Verde students from the Confucius Institute were invited. Students from the Confucius Institute gave a splendid performance; they sang a traditional Chinese song Mo Li Hua (Jasmine), which gained big round of applause.

On April 27, Erhu virtuoso ZHU Zixin gave a lecture about the Erhu — a traditional Chinese instrument — to students from Confucius Institute. ZHU played several famous pieces on the Erhu, including Er Quan Ying Yue and Guang Ming Xing. That offered a fabulous chance for students to get an intimate experience of the Erhu. Three enthusiastic students volunteered to go on the stage in turns and get hands-on instructions, which made them very excited.

These series of activities were held in a sensitive period when the Democratic Movement Party was going to replace the Independent Party after Cape Verde’s parliamentary election. But the celebrations were not affected, which indicated that the friendship between Cape Verde and China was based on a solid political and social foundation. All parties that had attended the activities emphasized that every party reached the consensus of keeping a friendly relation with China. No matter which party assumes the power, Cape Verde government will be committed to maintain the partnership with China and making continued progress in practical cooperation.

Chinese report:佛得角大学孔子学院庆中佛交流40周年